Within the past few months this newspaper has carried stories
concerning poverty that should cause alarm in the minds of most
right thinking people.

One disclosed that hundreds of homeless children can be found in
the Greater Vancouver area -- 681 according to a survey.

Another spoke of the continuing delay by a B.C. government to
formulate a poverty reduction plan in a province that has the
highest rates of child poverty in the country.

Yet another spoke of the insidious effect poverty was having on
the mental health of children.

So what is being done?

B.C. is the only province without a poverty reduction plan
despite the fact that 557,000 residents -- including a fifth of our
children -- are living in conditions so abject as to endanger them
physically, mentally and morally.

The NDP government came to power promising to improve the lives
of the poor but we won’t know until next year what their plan
entails although its aim, apparently, is a drastic reduction of
poverty levels by 2024.

Now that must seem a long way off when today you don’t have
enough money to eat and pay the rent or can’t buy your child a pair
of shoes or a winter coat.

So until this brave new world arrives when, hopefully, thousands
of children aren’t coming to school hungry, or traumatized by the
dehumanizing stresses of living in destitution this newspaper will
continue its efforts to help them through our Adopt-A-School (AAS) campaign.

It will also continue to demand that the government implement a
program to ensure children who need feeding at school get fed.

AAS was launched in 2011 and this will be our eighth appeal.

“To date $3.8 million has been distributed to 140 schools
throughout the province,” said Harold Munro, editor of the Vancouver
Sun-Province newspapers and chair of The Vancouver Sun Children’s
Fund board which oversees Adopt-A-School.

“Last year almost $600,000 was sent to schools to help alleviate
the effects poverty was having on students -- buying food, clothing,
and other necessities. The money was distributed to teachers who
have to deal with the stress of seeing children in pitiful states
without any other means of help,” he said.

“Without the support of our readers who have stood with us,
nothing could have been done, only more of the helpless hand
wringing the poor are all too familiar with.”

This fall the Sun has received requests from close to 80 schools
totalling more than $800,000 -- most asking for help to feed children.

In September The New York Times carried a front page story about
children in a wealthy, first world country arriving at school unfed,
hungry and chronically in need of help. That a prestigious North
American newspaper found such a story worth the telling is significant.

The story -- with a few geographical alterations -- could well
have fitted into the pages of this newspaper’s AAS coverage anytime
in the last seven years.

Their reporter went to Morecambe -- a small seaside town in the
northwest of England.

Teachers there said that until recently they had never seen
children arriving in such a state. What shocked them most was that
many were children whose parents had jobs who in the past could be
expected to feed them.

The conditions the NYT found in Morecambe can be found here.

However, there are some differences between Morecambe and Vancouver.

Firstly, we have had this state of affairs far longer than four
or five years and the level of privation in our children is much worse.

Unlike humble Morecambe, the working poor here have the added
burden of living in one of the world’s most heated real estate
markets which has driven rents to a point where -- for the poor --
it becomes a toss up between paying rent or eating.

Teachers have consistently pointed to that dilemma as one of the
main evils suffered by families trying to exist on income assistance
or minimum wage jobs.

It results in families constantly going hungry at weekends, some
with no food or, as we discovered in one case, with only an onion to
share between them.

It is the reason The Vancouver Sun is again asking readers for
their continued support, said Munro.

“There are scores of requests from schools desperate to give
these children and families the dignity of being fed, clothed and
cherished,” said Munro.

“This is not an appeal for charity as it is for justice. These
children are voiceless, they suffer the indignity of hunger and
privation in silence and their pain is only apparent to their teachers.

“We can’t leave it like that,’ said Munro.

“In the next few months we will be sharing their stories.
Please, if you are in a position to help, join with us. One hundred
percent of your donation will go to these children.”

An idea of what some teachers here are dealing with is apparent
from an email recently received from an inner-city school teacher
ostensibly describing how donations of clothing -- thanks to AAS --
were coming into her school.

But it finished with a telling account of her day:

“... then I hear of six people sleeping today in a living room …
or a 14-year-old pregnant … or a child seeing a parent using a
needle … and (see) kids killing (bed) bugs in the palms of their
hands while learning to read … and I’m so grateful to have this huge
village helping our families. “I’m exhausted.”

Related fundraisers
for our cause

Vancouver Sun Children's Fund Adopt-a-School 2018 Community

Our community shows our leading supporters and the contributions they've made or inspired
by sharing our campaign.
Learn more

Sign in to get your personal share link and see your position in our
community.

How it works
To appear in our community, simply make a contribution to our campaign
and show your name, or inspire a contribution from someone else by sharing your personal link (below).
The more contributions you make or inspire, the higher you'll go and the more the campaign will benefit.

,
take your place in our community!

,
you're currently in position of

,
you've helped raise a total of .

How it works
To appear in our community, simply make a contribution to our campaign
and show your name, or inspire a contribution from someone else by sharing your personal link (below).
The more contributions you make or inspire, the higher you'll go and the more the campaign will benefit.

Delete update

Delete milestone

Share this post

Edit your message

Report campaign

Report submitted

Thank you. We take reports like yours very seriously.
Our goal is to keep the community safe.

Please know that we may contact you for more information,
but that we won't notify you personally of our decision.
If the campaign remains available within a few days, it's
likely that we determined it not to be in violation of our
policies.

Thank you. We've already received your previous report.
If the campaign remains available within a few days, it's
likely that we determined it not to be in violation of our
policies.

Record a video

Upload a video

Nothing grabs attention for your cause like a personal
video. Take a minute or two to record one now.
Record a short video message of support.
Or upload one from your device.
You can preview or redo your video before you post it.

Nothing grabs attention for your cause like a personal
video. Upload a short video message of support.
Upload a short video message of support.
Or record one right now.